Memories of Childhood

As we head towards spring/summer it brings back memories of several visits to Lords for cricket and being able to sit behind the cricket boundary fence and watch the match.

(09-03-2019 07:34 )milfspotter Wrote:  Does anyone remember a programme called The Double Deckers? It was about the adventures of a group of kids who seemed to live in an old bus in a junkyard. It had a great theme tune. I remember I fancied the older one of the two girls but found the younger one really annoying.

Yup I remember that but the interesting thing is it was actually made for the US market here and then shown later. Brinsley Forde as Spring who went on to be a member of ASWAD pop group and Peter Firth played Scooper and later spymaster Sir Harry Pearce in successful spy drama Spooks. I can only remember Debbie Russ as Tiger, but she she cropped up in a film with Reg Varney called 'Go For A Take' According to my book 'The Encyclopaedia of Cult Children's tv' by Richard Lewis there was also Billie(Gillian Bailey), Brains(Michael Audreson), Sticks(Bruce Clark) and Melvyn Hayes as Albert.

(09-03-2019 09:13 )babelover48 Wrote:  As we head towards spring/summer it brings back memories of several visits to Lords for cricket and being able to sit behind the cricket boundary fence and watch the match.

I only got to Lord's a few years ago on a tour I was given for Christmas and it was quite a place. The only cricket I remember was watching the BBC's coverage AND sometimes listening to Test Match Special on Radio 4 with dear old Brian Johnston(Jonners) and Henry Blofeld (Blowers). I used to play cricket with my father in the local park and at school we played once with our P.E. teacher into bat. He smashed it so hard and distant it went from the field right into the playground

At school we used to have to remember to leave the Bunsen burners on a flame and not the blue one so it could be seen clearly. I remember one thug at school opened the gas tap and lit the gas and a flame shot out, thank goodness no-one was injured but it could have resulted in a nasty burn. The old metal ones had a sort of tap that you had to move to increase the flame size and of course you had to attach the asbestos-style pad on the frame that went around the burner so you could add a dish or test tube to heat up. Chemistry was quite fun back then, I remember that our teacher once demonstrated magnesium which when heated glowed brightly. I have regaled the tale of the time our Biology teacher, who was filling in for the Science teacher, nearly blew us up. Our science classes were really good, sitting on wooden stools and of course you had to have special glasses and an apron. Considering what chemicals we had to use, I am surprised no-one realised that you could make some sort of bomb!

As mentioned in the 80's thread do you remember "back your books"? This was brought in to stop children from doodling over the front of their books-I know I used to do little cartoons on them. It consisted of using either brown paper, wrapping paper or wallpaper; basically anything went for both girls and boys although I wanted to try and match my books to the paper so I found some old world map wrapping paper for my History books. It was very popular with us kids back then.

(10-03-2019 15:05 )GreenMachine Wrote:  At school we used to have to remember to leave the Bunsen burners on a flame and not the blue one so it could be seen clearly. I remember one thug at school opened the gas tap and lit the gas and a flame shot out, thank goodness no-one was injured but it could have resulted in a nasty burn. The old metal ones had a sort of tap that you had to move to increase the flame size and of course you had to attach the asbestos-style pad on the frame that went around the burner so you could add a dish or test tube to heat up. Chemistry was quite fun back then, I remember that our teacher once demonstrated magnesium which when heated glowed brightly. I have regaled the tale of the time our Biology teacher, who was filling in for the Science teacher, nearly blew us up. Our science classes were really good, sitting on wooden stools and of course you had to have special glasses and an apron. Considering what chemicals we had to use, I am surprised no-one realised that you could make some sort of bomb!

As mentioned in the 80's thread do you remember "back your books"? This was brought in to stop children from doodling over the front of their books-I know I used to do little cartoons on them. It consisted of using either brown paper, wrapping paper or wallpaper; basically anything went for both girls and boys although I wanted to try and match my books to the paper so I found some old world map wrapping paper for my History books. It was very popular with us kids back then.

Yes, covered mine with plain white wallpaper, which was then covered in biro proclamations such as ‘LFC Champions of Europe 78’ the Liverpool crest, ‘Kopites rule’..you name it

It never occurred to me to do that but I think our school has asked for nothing sport-related and to keep it plain or patterned-thus stopping you from doodling in the first place.
Carl mentioned the Moon landing and what he remembered. I'm afraid I was far too young to remember but my mother reckons I did sit and watch it with her, but then again I don't recall that; how could I, I was only 3 years old at the time. It would have been good to see it and to remember it but I've seen so many pictures and indeed the broadcast featuring the big names of the BBC like Patrick Moore watching and commenting on it. It's probably up there with England winning the World Cup in 1966.

(10-03-2019 15:05 )GreenMachine Wrote:  As mentioned in the 80's thread do you remember "back your books"? This was brought in to stop children from doodling over the front of their books-I know I used to do little cartoons on them. It consisted of using either brown paper, wrapping paper or wallpaper; basically anything went for both girls and boys although I wanted to try and match my books to the paper so I found some old world map wrapping paper for my History books. It was very popular with us kids back then.

Pissed meself laughing wen i read this. Used to use old pieces of wallpaper that for some reason we had laying around. It was used for french text books to stop kids drawing on them despite the fact that every picture inside someone had drawn knobs on them.

(11-03-2019 21:09 )GreenMachine Wrote:  It never occurred to me to do that but I think our school has asked for nothing sport-related and to keep it plain or patterned-thus stopping you from doodling in the first place.
Carl mentioned the Moon landing and what he remembered. I'm afraid I was far too young to remember but my mother reckons I did sit and watch it with her, but then again I don't recall that; how could I, I was only 3 years old at the time. It would have been good to see it and to remember it but I've seen so many pictures and indeed the broadcast featuring the big names of the BBC like Patrick Moore watching and commenting on it. It's probably up there with England winning the World Cup in 1966.

My recollection of the Moon landing is one of those grey, foggy recollections...vague but somehow memorable. As I posted in the other childhood thread, my memory of the Apollo 13 splashdown after the near catastrophe with the explosion that occurred a few days earlier, is very much sharper. I can even recall Peter Fairley the Science Journalist at ITN talking (on the brink of tears) about the explosion and how the three astronauts were in grave danger. That event must have had an real impact on me to impress itself so strongly in my memory, given that we’re talking about something that happened in April 1970.

I remember seeing the very first Space Shuttle blast off at school-we were allowed to watch it on a television that had been wheeled into the Crush Hall(which doubled as our lunch area) so we could watch it live. It was great to see this thing that had been a dream once suddenly become real(They did have models of Shuttles in the James Bond film Moonraker in 1979) and take off into space.

(11-03-2019 22:57 )GreenMachine Wrote:  I remember seeing the very first Space Shuttle blast off at school-we were allowed to watch it on a television that had been wheeled into the Crush Hall(which doubled as our lunch area) so we could watch it live. It was great to see this thing that had been a dream once suddenly become real(They did have models of Shuttles in the James Bond film Moonraker in 1979) and take off into space.

Oh God Moonraker...

Much of that was a really good film...til it got silly at the end...’I think he’s attempting re-entry Sir’ fnarr fnarr...